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NetWitness Platform vs Sentinel comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

NetWitness Platform
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
36th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (38th)
Sentinel
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
17th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sentinel is 2.7%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sentinel2.7%
NetWitness Platform1.0%
Other96.3%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2256927 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Security, Cyber Defense and IT Risk Management at HCT. at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
A solid SIEM solution that should improve technical support and online resources to be easier to use
A big problem with the product is that we don't have much professional experience in Israel installing, implementing, and integrating this product. There is not enough of a knowledge base. There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams. We like to work locally because of the language, and when the product is only supported outside the country, it's a little difficult to implement and use this product. Moreover, AI is something that must be added immediately. Artificial intelligence is a part of the competitors' products, and it's not been implemented for us.
Simon Johnston - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Customer Success at Coltek Business Soltuions
Simple antivirus solution integrates well but could improve pricing and currency options
I don't really have experience working with these solutions. I promote them for our clients, but I don't work with them. I can't share my experience with these tools as I make assumptions about that. For both Adlumin and CrowdStrike, both confirm that they're scalable and enterprise-ready and all those kinds of things. We haven't had any specific problem with either of those. We just have a preference for which one we would prefer. If somebody says they want to use a different one from the one that we prefer, then we have to find reasons why they aren't. But scalability is not one of the reasons that one is better over the other. I don't really have advice for people that are looking into using Sentinel; just do your research across what is available. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Sentinel a seven.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Technically speaking, this is a good product."
"Thanks to this tool, we have a small SOC running in our company."
"NetWitness can be highly beneficial for incident detection and response."
"RSA NetWitness is a SIEM and real-time network traffic solution that collects logs and packets, applies a set of alerting, reporting, and analysis rules on them, and thus provides the enterprise with full visibility of the networks and activities of the systems."
"The most valuable features are the integration and ease of use."
"It gives customers visibility about their most important servers and devices."
"Overall, it is easy to implement."
"The software is scalable to whatever is required, and you can also put a lot of resources in the cloud."
"Sentinel gave us logs to tell us what's going right and wrong in your environment so we could secure the network."
"The stability is phenomenal and we never had any issues with downtime or even had to restart."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it provides a central locking system for many event sources."
"If Sentinel is integrated with Identity Manager and User Application Portal, the solution runs simply perfect!"
"Sentinel has positively impacted my organization by improving monitoring significantly."
"We can do advanced hunting queries and modify SQL queries to get desired results based on the rules triggering over the console."
"Sentinel is a tool that, if it's well configured, removes from view all unnecessary information and shows you only needful entries, so you can do your job faster, more conveniently, and with high performance."
"The correlation engine allows our clients to generate rules more efficiently."
 

Cons

"More customizability is required, which is something that they need to improve on."
"Sometimes, it gives me static when integrating Windows-based systems. It should produce a precise log of sorts as to where the problem is. For example, a few days ago because of the McAfee application firewall, I couldn't get access to the particular Windows machine. So, my team and I had to figure out by ourselves that there was a virus responsible for the obstacle. This solution should trigger a meaningful log or message indicating the reason the user or implementer can't get into the machine."
"Security needs improvement. We would still like to know how the traffic is entering the organization."
"If we have the ability to run a dynamic analysis through malware in the same suite, it would be great to have a sandbox solution to analyze malware through dynamic analysis."
"The system looks like it is a mix of a bunch of different systems, and nothing looked like it was quite together."
"I cannot say that the solution was stable because it tended to crash."
"One thing to be improved in NetWitness is the capability to correlate event logs in a general sense."
"Technical support could be improved."
"I rate Sentinel a six out of ten for scalability."
"There are still a few vendor-specific devices for which Sentinel needs to work on integration, such as Netskope devices."
"The dashboard and customer view should be improved."
"Some functions look great but, in practice, some key limitations turn the process into something opaque."
"The web interface needs to be improved, as it has a java-based way to call its controls."
"It is an ancient product."
"It's probably not a product that I would recommend to anyone."
"Frankly speaking, we did not find this product to be valuable, at all."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."
"In comparison to other SIEM solutions such as Splunk, NetWitness is less costly."
"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."
"We are on an annual license for the use of the solution."
"The new pricing and licensing mechanisms are fair. I would advise always to get the full solution (i.e., not only Logs)."
"It is cheap."
"Sentinel's slightly on the expensive side."
"We inquired about getting support from the vendor, Micro Focus, but the cost was very high."
"Sentinel is moderately priced."
"We receive a pricing discount because of our ongoing partnership with Micro Focus."
"Sentinel is a subscription-based solution."
"The solution’s pricing is aligned with its competitors."
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Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 26, 2015
HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. ​McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm
We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?
The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.
What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?
There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.
What is your primary use case for NetWitness Platform?
I use NetWitness Platform ( /products/netwitness-platform-reviews ) in the financial industry as a good product with excellent capabilities and integration with various devices.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Sentinel?
I don't have too many comments overall about pricing as we're in South Africa, so it makes more sense if it's billed in rand. They nearly always bill it in dollars, so if it can be billed in our cu...
What needs improvement with NetIQ Sentinel?
I'm not sure what the room for improvement is for Sentinel. It needs to stay current, and it does, so I suppose that's fine. I don't have a high demand for what it should do. Price is always a cons...
What is your primary use case for NetIQ Sentinel?
It's our go-to choice for antivirus. I use Sentinel a lot.
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
NetIQ Sentinel, Novell SIEM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Faysal Bank, GaVI, Handelsbanken, ISC Mªnster, Lambeth Council, Swisscard, The Municipality of Siena, Tukes, University of Dayton, University of the Sunshine Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. Sentinel and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.